Raghuram Rajan has big plans for Indian economy which were visible in his speech at the time of taking office as the governor of The Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As the 23rd governor of the RBI who has taken over in a time of crisis, he has a lot on his hands. Apart from helping the government in improving the economy, Rajan also wants banking to reach the interiors of India where 60 per cent of the people are still unbanked.

Rajan spoke about the two main areas where banking needs to make inroads soon; first, the rural population – where most people still keep their money in a pit dug in their houses or in kitchen tin boxes. The second area for concern is the medium and small scale industries where also banking assistance needs to reach soon.

Rajan also aims to leverage technology to ensure financial services reach where they are needed the most. As the mobile phone reaches every corner of India, he stressed on the need for mobile payments which will help people to transfer funds using their mobile.

(Also read: Now, over to you Dr Raghuram 'popular' Rajan)

Rajan said that the RBI will set up a technical committee to study the feasibility of transferring funds using encrypted SMS technology, which can run on any kind of handset. If this feasibility study is successful and if banking reaches the rural areas soon enough many people such as, migrant workers would be able to easily send money back home without the fear of it being taken away by middlemen or stolen on the way.
Rajan promised to make banks and mobile companies co-operate for the successful rollout of mobile payments as it will be beneficial for both the parties.

He also recommended the use of Aadhaar in establishing individual credit histories of people which will help in boosting the retail industry.